I fished an evening trip on Belton with two young men from my church, Christian W. and Joseph H. I’ve come to nick-name these trip “Guy-Time” trips. We had some good Guy-Time today. The highlight of the trip came early on when Christian landed his first fish ever, a classic scenario of a sunfish caught on a pole using a worm under a float … can’t get any simpler than that!!

CHRISTIAN W. WITH HIS FIRST LARGEMOUTH EVER!

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:10p

Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~77F

Wind: Winds were very light from the SE at6-9 and staying that way until just minutes before the arrival of a cold front. At that time the winds went slack for about 15 minutes, then the N. wind started bearing down at around 10-12 with thunder, lightning and rain.

Skies: Partly cloudy and bright until the front arrived with heavy, high grey clouds blocking out the pre-sunset sun.

As I thought about what kind of trip to run for these boys, I knew (because I’ve fished with him several times now) that Joseph would enjoy a mix of techniques. I also wanted to be sure Christian, who’d never caught a fish before, has some initial success. So, I planned on fishing for sunfish early when, lately, the fishing for whites and hybrid has been slow, then switching over to white bass and hybrid fishing toward sunset. This turned out to be a good approach.

We began our trip at Area 492 with worms used under floats targeting sunfish. We made 3 stops along the bank here and caught fish at each location. The boys boated a total of 23 fish including 2 blacktail shiners, 20 bluegill sunfish up to 5 inches in length, and 1 longear sunfish. After about 90 minutes we’d worn the fish out and the boys were ready for a new adventure.

I knew it was a bit early to expect the whites and hybrids to get cranked up, we we spot-hopped, looking for some easy action, and, in the process, getting the boys accustomed to the downriggers so we could really work the fish over once they turned on toward sunset.

We found rather disinterested, small whites in the vicinity of Area 472 and put 2 in the boat before I decided to leave, as these fish were so small they could hardly be seen pulling on the downrigging gear thus creating the likelihood of dragging a small fish without knowing it.

We looked at Area 214 to 474 and found nothing.

We hooked up with a largemouth down deep at 35 feet at Area 152.

We looked at Areas 187 and 083 and found nothing there.

We ended up at between Area 302 and to the N of Area 084 right around 6:00p, and then began waiting the fish out. The fish began to get active around 6:20, and then went into overdrive around 6:50 just as the SE wind was tapering to a stop, and the first rumbles of thunder could be heard way out to the west between Cove and Gatesville. Over the short span of time from 6:50 to 7:15 when we were forced off the water by threatening weather, the boys caught 14 fish in rapid succession. All of these fish were “cookie cutter” white bass right at 12 inches and with average girth. When one rod went off, one boy went to work reeling the fish in and the other cleared the downrigger ball out of the water and got it ready to reset. Once the fish was unhooked and returned to the water, the boys worked together to reset the line in the release clip and get the ball back to the magic depth dictated by sonar. Christian even picked up on reading the sonar to know what depth the ball should be run at without asking me. Twice we had doubles on. At 7:15 the first flash of lightning appeared at a distance in the high clouds and we had to call it quits.

A very enjoyable trip with two solid young men.

TALLY = 40 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

I fished a morning trip solo today in advance of a long-planned weekend trip for 4 long-time buddies from Houston. I wanted to scout things out so I don’t let these fellows down. In summary, the fishing is pretty tough right now. We’ve seen a crazy cycle of low pressure systems and cold fronts accompanies by rain and north and east winds, all of which always make for tough fishing.

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78F

Wind: Winds were very light from the S at 6.

Skies: Mostly cloudy skies changing to heavily overcast skies by noon, only to clear to partly cloudy in advance of a cold front that arrived in the evening at ~7:30pm, once again dropping our temps and dropping ~1/3 inch of rain.

Environmental Note: Saw migrating white pelicans today; ~150 birds in 4 distinct groups.

I found fish at only 2 locations today. My first stop came pre-dawn at Area 407. I fancast bladebaits here in 8 to 17 feet of water and began to pick fish up right before sunrise. The fish bit well, responding to a vertical presentation better than to a horizontal one. A steady 5-crank retrieve worked, as did a jigging motion with a high lift. I boated 26 fish here within 40 minutes of sunrise and decided to leave them biting in order to search for additional active fish while the “window” was still open. Of these fish, only 1 in 5 would go legal size, and all of those were right at 11 inches and were not really chunky at all.

I looked and looked with sonar and with the naked eye for sign leading the way to fish, but it was slim pickings after that initial morning feed. Areas 390, 411, 444, and 480 held nothing.

I did find a small, tight school of white bass holding on the gentle break at 40′ between Areas 70 and 71. I first picked them up on sonar and downrigged over them 3 times without a response. I was absolutely sure they were white bass by the sonar image they gave off, so, I buoyed them and then began to work with a slab. I got little response there, and then switched to a blade and that perked them up a good bit. Over a 40 minute span, I put 6 more fish in the boat. These were all healthy 13″ fish. Once this school dispersed, I never contacted fish again over this entire area.

I did some more looking after this, but found little.

TALLY = 32 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing